Evidence for Evolution The basics of sexual selection This is part three in my series of postings. In this post I describe a paper presented in the July 12, 1990 issue of Nature dealing with sexual selection in katydids (an insect). I am going to break this up into two articles, one to outline the underlying theory and another to describe the experiment. The paper I will outline deals with sexual selection. It is well accepted that the most intense competition an organism faces is with members of its own species. Many species tend to have limited diets and habitat requirements, and an organism must compete with members of his own species to secure these necessities. Of primary importance, however, is procuring a mate. If an organism fails to do that it's genes are eliminated from the gene pool. (Note that in nature there is never enough food, habitat and/or mates to go around. There are always more offspring produced in a population than will be able to reproduce.) In many (if not most) animal systems, females choose the males they wish to mate with. Conversely, males compete for access to females. For example many male birds defend a

This is the end of the preview.
Sign up
to
access the rest of the document.